A Heavenly View

“He (Jesus) entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’“

There is a building in the Austin skyline that causes a debate when our family drives by it, each and every time. Half of the car refers to it as the ice scraper, some of the car sees it as a fish, and one claims it is an owl.

Same building … seven different sets of eyes and three different outcomes. Our perspectives are all different, but it is the same building. It never changes.

So it is with God’s creations … us. While I can view one person as a leader and confident, someone else might see them as cocky and arrogant. Perhaps it is a “glass half full or half empty” debate, or perhaps it is simply the perspective.

We can read about a guy named Zaccheus in Luke 19:1-10. You know quite quickly how everyone in town viewed him. He was not liked at all … tax collector, enemy, crook, sinner. Unlike our car and the view of the Austin Skyscraper, the town’s people were not divided on the outcome of their view of him. They all shared the same feeling of disgust … until Jesus walked through town.

Zaccheus had crawled up in a tree (go ahead, sing the song) to get a look at Jesus. He was short in stature, so getting a better view was needed.

When Jesus walked by, He stopped and called out to Zaccheus and asked if He could go to his house with him.

Gasp. Why in the world would Jesus want to go to his house? He was a crook!

But you see, Jesus saw Zaccheus from a different view. He saw this man as a creation of His; He saw him with the love that only He could have; He saw Zaccheus unlike anyone else.

All because He had a different view. He had what we long to strive for … a heavenly view.

Often, we are short in stature in our hearts and we need to look for a different … a better view.

Look around your neighborhood, the pool, the store, your sports team. Who do you see that you need to have Christ’s view when you look at them with your heart?